The elephant in the room at Sochi 2014

The values underpin the Games as a set of universal principles, and they can
be applied to education and our lives, as well as to sport itself. There are three Olympic values;FriendshipRespect Excellence
along with the four Paralympic values:DeterminationInspirationCourageEquality
And so we might ask, what does each value mean, why it is important to have the values, how and why are the values important to people, and what happens when individuals have or haven’t put these values into practice?

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the ‘Sinister’ history of Soviet training.

Surprisingly, given the history of Russian sport, this will be the first ever Winter Olympics to be held in Russia. This will be the ideal platform, for Russia to move away from the speculation of the past, to show the world their philosophy on sporting achievement and the Olympic values.

Russia has refused to comply with a 2010 judgment of the European court of human rights which requires Moscow to allow the type of lesbian and gay pride event that is held in most major European cities. On 29th June 2013, a new federal law which imposed heavy fines on individuals and NGOs accused of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors expressed in distribution of information” was passed. Prosecutions are likely to be made under the new “propaganda law”, which potentially bans any public indication of support for the idea that same-sex and different-sex relationships should be treated equally.

And so, to the principles of a democracy: freedom of expression, assembly and association. The most basic right of every minority in every democracy in the world is to make itself visible and to campaign for legal reforms, by holding peaceful public assemblies and forming associations that seek to persuade the majority to change its mind, and stop discriminating against the minority.

Olympic athlete Johnny Weir, has written about his personal experiences, his love of Russia, and his desire to be at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014: